AllMusic ReviewReleased as a benefit album for the UN's food aid agency, Leaves of Life was assembled and produced by Buck Curran of the alt-folk duo Arborea and issued by his own Borne! Records imprint. It features 19 songs by contemporary folk artists, and includes some moodily interesting cuts like Alela Diane and Mariee Sioux's ethereal version of "The Cuckoo," Devendra Banhart's sparse, epic-sounding "Hotel St. Sebastian," David Garland's hyper-aware "Splinter Heart," and Citay's "Little Kingdom," among others. It's all pretty low-key and atmospheric, and at times self-consciously hushed in tone. Call it chill-out folk.-Steve Leggett

Robbie Basho - Live in Forlì, Italy 1982

Robbie Basho Live in Concert, Forlì, Italy. Recorded 11 October 1982. (Vinyl edition forthcoming in Autumn/Winter 2017)creditsreleased June 27, 2017

This release is in cooperation with the Official Robbie Basho Archives *For more information about Robbie Basho please visit the Robbie Basho Archives www.robbiebasho-archives.info

Mario Calvitti's rememberance of the Forlì Concert:

The year before (1981) I had met Maurizio Angeletti, an Italian acoustic fingerstyle guitar player, when he was on tour in Italy with John Fahey. We exchanged contacts, andone year later he called me saying that he was managing an Italian tour with Robbie, asking whether I could find a booking in my area. A friend of mine named Giovanni Picone was involved in a municipality activity about music, so through him I managed to get things organized, including some funding from the municipality. The name of my hometown is Forli', in the north-centre part of Italy (south of Bologna, north of Rimini, two towns that are better known). I was 25 at that time, and a few months later I would move to Rome to start working. The date of the concert was October 11, after they played in Brescia (which is up north) on the 10th and traveling with Maurizio's car all the way south to Rome where they played the Folkstudio on the 12-13. The setlist was much similar to others from the same period, adding versions of 'California Raga' and 'Song of the Stallion'. The concert was held in Sala Gaddi, a room of a 18th century building (Palazzo Gaddi) that was home to the local music high school until 1989 and was used for mostly classical concerts. Nowadays the building is home to a couple of historical museums. Robbie liked the place, I remember him saying once between songs "this is one lovely little room where I could play all night". Maurizio Angeletti opened the concert with a selection of his own pieces, Takoma style, mainly on 12 string guitar. He had two albums out on small italian indie labels, and a third one would have followed shortly. Sadly, none of them have been digitally reissued, but the original vinyls can be found from some online vendor. Two or three years later he would quit music completely, to move abroad and become a professional kite-maker. That night he played with a sore finger, swollen and aching, and in between pieces he talked about his recent passion forkites, still not imagining that it would become such a big part in his forthcoming life. After Maurizio, Robbie played his set. The music was wonderful, hearing him play live such masterpieces as 'Grail and the Lotus' and Cathedrals et Fleur de Lis' was one of the best concert experiences I had in my life. He introduced the pieces speaking some Italian. My friend Giovanni taped both performances, and later made me a copy. he can also be heard tinkling the small bell at the end of 'Grail & the Lotus', at Robbie's request. I was particularly surprised by the attendance: I didn't expect many people to show up (he was quite unknown at that time, and very little advertisement had been done, mainly distributing leaflets). Still, at the end of the evening 110 tickets had been sold. Not bad for a small town of about 100,000 inhabitants: I've heard that the following nights in Rome at the Folkstudio (that was a famous concert venue, though small) the audience was no more than 70 people. Also, in Forli' the audience was very attentive and responsive, just like in a classical concert, and I think Robbie also liked to be considered as a classical performer (just my guess). He wore the same shirt that is in the cover picture of 'Art Of The Acoustic Steel String Guitar 6 & 12'...he had some of his LPs for sale (I bought my copy of 'Rainbow Thunder' on that occasion). My biggest regret, I was so overwhelmed by emotion that I couldn't talk to him at all...I just had it sign my copy of the book "American Guitarists" by Maurizio Angeletti, on the first page of his chapter, with his name preceded by the word "Saluti" (Greetings in Italian).

We are very happy to announce the upcoming release of this rare Robbie Basho recording now avaible on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.

ADELE H'S CIVILIZATION COMING OUT IN APRIL 2017

Civilization, the debut album by Italian singer-songwriter Adele H, represents four years of thoughts, ideas and melodies.

Adele H is the solo music project of Adele Pappalardo, a singer-songwriter who uses just her voice and a Brazilian tambourine (and occasionally other percussion instruments) to create primordial experimental pop songs. The essential instrumentation creates primitive layers of music where the theme of spirtual awakening is celebrated.

After touring eight countries across Europe, the UK, and the Middle East last year, Swiss-based artist ADAYA and her band (comprised of musicians from Europe and North America), have released their first album The Other Side. The Other Side is a prophetic album rooted deep in folk traditions from the British Isles and steeped in colors of contemporary psychedelic folk. ADAYA’s poetic and mature songwriting is the result of many years of traveling and from being an uncompromising full-time musician. Adaya Lancha Bairacli was primarily a solo artist until 2014, when she began collaborating with the multi-talented American bassist Aaron Goldsmith. Their band began to expand in 2015 with the addition of Buck Curran, who gives an ethereal touch with his Electric Guitar (for the past decade he’s been a member of the renown American Psych-Folk duo Arborea). Also in the current line-up is percussionist Jonny Snape (who hails from the U.S. Punk-folk scene), along with Canadian Meghan Engel (former violinist of several established bands in Vancouver).

Folk Radio Uk: "On ‘The Other Side,’ Adaya successfully reimagines folk music through the bright window of intelligent songcraft and genuinely experimental arrangements. It is an intensely varied and often mesmerising release from a unique voice."

The first ever tribute to Robbie Basho We are All One, In the Sun’feat. Glenn Jones, Meg Baird, Arborea, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Helen Espvall, Cian Nugent, Fern Knight, Rahim Alhaj is now available for Pre-Order via Obsolete Recordings Bandcamp. Originally released on Important Records (2010).

"Most tribute records are as cruel as weak tea, comprised of a few people you like and more that you don’t covering tunes that you like a lot done with, at best, erratic results. If you feel differently and you don’t mind CDs now is your time, because you can probably find a ton of them for a penny and postage second-hand on Amazon.com. But guitarist and singer Robbie Basho, who debuted on John Fahey’s Takoma label in the mid-1960s, is a uniquely appropriate subject for such endeavors. He inspires uncommon passion from his fans, but there are also aspects of his work that put off even some longtime devotees. He was also so idiosyncratic a talent that you can’t help but sound a bit like yourself while playing his music. Conversely the tunes you write that are inspired by him are bound to show that influence bright and clear. These factors converge to make Basket Full Of Dragons, the second volume of Basho tunes compiled by guitarist Buck Curran, a satisfying listen as well as a fitting tribute.

The album opens with a duet between harmonium player Matthew Azevedo and guitarist Glenn Jones. Jones is one of three players who also appeared on We Are All One, in the Sun, the first volume; he was also a friend of Basho in the years before the guitarist died in a chiropractic accident in 1986. Once more, Jones plays a tune inspired by memories of Basho’s music and person. “Portrait Of Basho As A Young Dragon” recreates the stirring glory that its dedicatee could evoke through prayerful melody, and the harmonium’s thick drone occupies a dense swath of sonic space. This sets the stage for a very different duo, oud player Tamman Saeed and percussionist April Centone, who represent the Middle Eastern influence that enriched Basho’s music. The oud’s rapid decay and the dogged fidelity that Saeed pays to the melody of “Fog Upon The Moon” sounds small after the opening track’s grandeur, but that’s not a problem. Rather, it affords Centone plenty of room to engage in elaborations that confer bebop accents upon Levantine sonorities.

Mike Tamburo shows that you don’t need to play what Basho played to catch his vibe. His hammered dulcimer turns “The Chameleon And The Crow” into a lengthy fantasia as dramatically wide-eyed as anything Basho ever played. The other player to go long is Steffen Basho-Junghans, a German guitarist who learned Basho’s techniques at a time when he was nearly forgotten and has maintained an on-line archive of Basho lore through the decades. “The Rediscovery Of Basho’s Cathedral” not only summons the epic quality of it’s honoree’s music, it makes one wish that Basho-Junghans would start making records of his own again.

Richard Osborn is the other participant who actually knew Basho. He took lessons from him decades ago, but an injury in 1980 sidelined his playing for decades. “Walk In Beauty” is an original that chimes in harmony with Basho’s reverence for American Indians. It sounds just as prayerful Basho’s own much but more lived-in due to the contrast between Osborn’s lilting fingerpicking and his aged croak of a voice. Most of the other singing on the record is by female vocalists, which seems fitting given that the only singer Basho sounded like was Yma Sumac. They tend to comport themselves more conventionally than Basho did, but again, that’s not a problem, but a second chance for songs that didn’t always get their due because of the extravagance of Basho’s delivery. One stands out. Eva Sheppard steps up and emulates Basho’s dizzying swoops on “Salangadou,” a feat made more remarkable by the fact that she’s still in high school. She is accompanied by her pop, Jesse Sheppard, who is a devoted videographer of American Primitive guitarists as well as a strong picker himself.

There’s more, but who wants to read descriptions when you could be tracking down Obsolete Recordings’ Bandcamp page and listening to the whole thing for yourself? So why don’t you do that, and follow it up with a prayer that someone is figuring out how to do proper reissues of Basho’s entire catalog.